CT Residents Starting To Move, Despite Stay-At-Home Advisory

CONNECTICUT — In the early rounds of the grudge match between the new coronavirus and spring fever, it appears that everyone's favorite seasonal distraction may have the upper hand. Americans are starting to move about more freely despite the continuing spread of the virus, even in states like Connecticut where the governor has issued a stay-at-home advisory.

Cellphone tracking data compiled by Google in its community mobility reports shows that people are traveling more, especially to grocery stores and pharmacies but above all to parks, now that spring is well advanced.

But as the chart below shows, Americans have increased their travel to all sorts of locations, including retail and recreation locations, transit stations and workplaces.

The numbers tracked in the charts below are the percentage deviation from the median baseline mobility for the corresponding day of the week, measured during the 5-week period Jan. 3–Feb. 6, 2020.

Gov. Ned Lamont issued his "Stay Safe, Stay Home" executive order on March 23. The new numbers show residents took the directive to heart early on, but sunshine, warmer temperatures and cabin fever may be chipping away at their resolve.

The tracking data show that Connecticut residents have been flocking to parks, as has the rest of the country, but at a rate six times greater than the average. Google cautions this may be more of an indicator of the quality and availability of our state's parks as it is the mood of our residents.

There has been an uptick in our visits to retail and recreation outlets and transit centers, according to the new numbers, but there has been little change in travel to workplaces since the end of March. This is a likely sign that the economy is still on lockdown.

Google arrived at these figures by aggregating location data from cellphones to track the movements of large numbers of people.

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See also: 3 CT Children Stricken By COVID-Related Inflammatory Illness

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The data comes with several important caveats:

• Tracking location does not show how often or how closely people come into contact with each other, and is not necessarily a predictor of infection.
• Rural residents often must travel farther to get groceries or other necessities, while city dwellers don't have to move far to infect others.
• Higher-income residents often are able to comply more easily than low-income residents, whose jobs do not always allow them to work from home.

The methodology of the Google report can be found at the end of this document.